Don’t Confuse Loyalty with Love

Often times you’ll hear a company owner or leader say of a non-performing, long-time employee, “He’s so loyal. I’m loyal to him, and he’s loyal to me. I’m not going to let him go after all these years.”

Yet, is it really loyalty when the teammate isn’t striving to perform in their current role? (more…)

This week our Impacting Leaders team conducted a training for a group of leaders. These leaders not only lead others but they are also followers… well, aren’t we all? Our topic was on delegating and empowering. This group shared some great insights when we asked them to describe what empowerment is or to describe a time when they felt empowered.

They painted a picture that was so satisfying to me that I knew I would be sharing it in today’s blog. Here is their description: (more…)

With new growth goals and budgets for the new year, many leaders are preparing to hire new teammates. So when adding to a team, which is more important – potential, loyalty, or team? Here are four things to consider.

  • I go with potential every time. I’m a people developer, so potential and character are all I need to do my work. Keep your eyes open for these candidates if you enjoy developing others or have a good team to support this effort.
  • A new teammate must be able to fit into the team like a puzzle piece. Don’t expect or require new people to be the same. Building a team of clones is not wise. You need and want diversity.
  • Build a team who accepts, serves, and embraces new teammates. Standoffish teams detour growth because new members struggle being accepted.
  • Loyalty is earned, so you can’t hire it. Loyalty exists between people, and it is a relationship. You don’t hold loyalty with a company.

Commitment is a trade off. In the business world, the employee will only give the amount of commitment that they first get from their leader. A traditional trade off example is the almighty paycheck. In the past, many bosses have relied solely on the paycheck to gain commitment from their employees.

Relying on money to keep people committed is a common employer mishap. Yes, it’s true that an employee will stay at their job for money, but let’s be careful not to mistake staying as commitment to the leader or to the company. Their sticking around is most likely a commitment to something else, like providing for their family. The employee’s strong commitment to their responsibility of earning income is what makes the money exchange worth it. However, paychecks can be earned most anywhere. If a leader only has a paycheck commitment from their employees, they are at risk of losing them to bigger paychecks at other companies.

As leaders our goal should be to gain commitment at a deeper and much more fulfilling level for both us and our employees. Here are five actions to help you gain commitment beyond the paycheck: (more…)